The sources for information about women who served in the Second
World War are numerous and can easily be found using internet
search engines such as google. The
Imperial War Museum and
the National
Army Museum are two excellent sources for general
research.

Access to closed files

Service records for serving women are difficult to obtain.
They fall within the 30 year closure rule and are therefore
not available
to the public unless certain criteria is met.

British Library

The British Library Oriental and India Office Collection only relate
to the Indian Army. Please see below under Ministry of Defence
for British Army records.

In
order to safeguard confidential information on the subjects
of the files,
who may
still be living,
the closure
period
for
these files has been set at 75 years from the date of entry
of the serviceman/woman into the service. The files are
opened on
an annual basis, i.e. on 1 January 1999, files for persons
joining the service in 1923 were opened. On 1 January
2000, files relating
to persons joining the service in 1924 were opened and so
on.

For files of persons who joined the service less than 75 years
ago, access can only be granted to:

The subject of the file (still living)

The (official, i.e. legal) next of kin of the subject, if
the subject is dead

Other persons, who have the signed, written permission of
either the subject, or if the subject is dead, then from
the official next of kin

Ministry of Defence

Service records can be disclosed to:

The ex-Serviceman/woman
the information belongs to.

The widow/widower of a deceased ex-Serviceman/women.

The legal
next of kin, if both the ex-Service person and their spouse
is deceased.

All other enquirers must be able to provide a letter of consent
for the information to be disclosed from either the person the
record belongs to or, if that person is deceased, from their
next of kin. The MoD will require proof of death and kinship
for all requests made for information about a deceased ex-Serviceman/woman.
A fee may be charged unless the request is made by the ex-Serviceman/woman
the record belongs to or their widow/widower.

To access a record the following information (or as much as possible)
is required:

Service Number, Rank, Full Name, Date of Birth and
period served (dates from and to). For queries to the Army
also state the Regiment
or Corps in addition to the above information.

A full copy of
the record can be requested however, original documents,
discharge papers/books cannot be replaced. The MoD
will also provide extracts from service records.

Imperial War MuseumFrom
15 October 2003 until 18 April 2004 the Imperial War Museum in
London are
staging a major exhibition on the role of women in wartime. "Women
and War" is the most ambitious exhibition of its kind ever
mounted on this theme, telling the story of servicewomen, nurses,
land girls, factory workers, secret agents, pilots and peacekeepers
from the First World War to the present day. For more information
about the "Women and War" exhibtion see our Imperial
War Museum partners page.

National Army Museum
Photograph of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck inspecting
members of the Women's Auxiliary Corps (India), 1947 has been
used with the kind permission of the National Army Museum. The
National Army Museum is the British Army's own museum. It is
the only museum to tell the story of the Army as a whole from
Agincourt in the Fifteenth Century to peace-keeping in the Twenty-first
Century.
Website: http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/

We Were There
The Ministry of Defence has an internet version
of the 'We Were There' Exhibition. It forms a tribute to the
contribution made
to British defence by military and civilian personnel from what
was then the British Empire and later the Commonwealth and whose
descendants now form part of the richly diverse ethnic population
in the United Kingdom.
Website: http://www.mod.uk/wewerethere/